


I Am My Own Sanctuary

by apocalyptic_azazel



Category: Incredibles (Pixar Movies)
Genre: Adoption, F/F, Possible Slow burn, Villain to Hero, havent decided yet - Freeform, hero to villain, possibly going to be long, redemption arc, why have i done this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 21:17:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17650025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalyptic_azazel/pseuds/apocalyptic_azazel
Summary: Violet finds out her family isn't who she thinks they are.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> okay so before I start... this thing is really weird. I don't know why I wrote this, I don't know where I'm going with it, but... the beginning exists. I was actually surprised by the lack of "Violet is adopted" fics because I thought it would be kind of obvious. Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions on ways this could go (I have ideas for future slow burn f/f but they're just ideas) I'll happily take them and credit you for the inspiration.  
> Also some ret-con:  
> Violet is 20 and at college in Seattle, also some minor changes to her powers, and I know her eyes are blue but for the sake of this being a goddamn fanfiction they've been changed to purple.  
> Dash is 16 and at boarding school in Austin, Texas with his Junior Super Team  
> Jack-Jack goes by JJ, is nonbinary, and has been aged up to be 12 because... I wanted them to.

It didn’t start with a DNA test.

Violet never expected it - that was part of the pain - but if she did expect it, a DNA test would’ve been her first guess. The at-home ones were so cheap, and already clickbait and tabloids circled about people finding out they were adopted or infidelity or worse. Sarah-Lynn from just a couple of dorms down found out she and her brother were actually half siblings over winter break, and their mother confessed to sleeping with the pool boy for over ten years.

It started with Tony.

They were drunk - of course, as most college students would be - on a Saturday night. He was making some crude joke about _Mrs. Elastigirl’s flexibility_ and Violet had just used her powers to launch a pillow at his pink face. The two had dated for a little bit in middle school, before he came out of the closet as gay and Violet as bisexual pretty soon after. She remembers fighting with him, a lot, and them getting distant with him until high school when they finally reconnected and became the closest friends. Coming out as a super was easier after that, and Violet relaxed in the fact she had someone, well - _normal_ to confide in about being powered.

He lounged back on her bed, clutching the offending projectile, while she spun in her desk chair. Violet’s roommate was out for the night, as such drinking game began. “Do you think it’s strange your powers are so different from your family’s?” He commented, throwing the pillow up in the air and catching it again.

“What do you mean?” Snorting, and taking another sip and gagging. Tequila and soda don’t mix great, but she wasn’t about to complain. “I’m really similar to my mom.”

Tony sat up really serious for a moment, and Violet had to contain a giggle at how stern his face looked. “You’re really not Vi; My major is Enhanced Organic Chem, my job is understanding super genetics.” Violet rolls her eyes at this. “As far as we know about super genetics, you break almost every requirement there is and _that’s weird Vi_.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“No, no, hear me out.” He started. “We know powers are genetically passed down, but the powers are _always similar_ to the parents, why do you have force fields and invisibility when no one in your family has anything like it?”

Vi shrugged. “My powers are density manipulation, and my mom has something similar - she’s gotta use some kind of density regulation to keep her body from just disintegrating.” Another drink.

“But that’s a _submissive power-_ ” Vi raised one eyebrow at the vocabulary. “Yeah I know _‘ha-ha’_ or whatever; but powers can be classified as either dominant or submissive alright, active vs passive.” He paused. “Dash for example is the perfect example for every theory we have on enhanced genetics, his active power - speed - is a result of an active and a submissive power being passed down by your parents, he’s got a level of super strength allowing him to push off the ground stronger, therefore increasing his stride and speed, plus a passive flexibility power that lets him overextend his legs without literally tearing his muscles apart.”

“Then what about JJ? They’ve got all the powers.” Violet had to catch herself from spinning out of the chair. Time for another drink.

Tony pointed at her. “JJ is the result of two dominant alleles. Old fashion punnett square style, if we assign the quote-on-quote ‘powered’ gene as capital S and being non-powered or having only passive powers as lowercase s, then you and Dash are both Big S-Little s, and JJ is double Big S.” He finally shrugged. “That one you’ve got me a little bit on, JJ’s a pretty strong outlier but therefore should not be counted.”

“Isn’t that a meme?” Violet finally took a shot, washing it down with her already alcoholic drink. He was making a moderate amount of sense, but that didn’t mean he was right. They were drunk, he was confusing his data, and it always was a big joke to them how much of a black sheep she was from her family.

He grinned, caught in the act. “Anyways, even so, everyone in your family has distinctly _body-altering physical_ powers, and you’re the only one with powers that are entirely mental based-” Violet was about to butt in to argue that literally changing the density of your body wasn’t mental, but Tony put up a hand. “You have to think about your power to activate it, Dash doesn’t have to think about running fast, _he just always is_ and takes precautions to slow down, same with both your parents, their powers are always ‘on’ and yours are ‘off’ until you activate them. _That’s really, really weird Vi._ ”

Violet gulped. He was getting too serious about this right? There’s no way he could be implying what he’s implying? Is he implying anything? It’s not like she’s felt like a square peg in a round hole her entire life (that’s just internalized homophobia right? From growing up in a heteronormative society?), it’s not like she’s never seen her birth certificate (...has she? Vi can’t remember if she has but… probably right?), it’s not like she’s the only one in her family with black hair, or purple eyes, or a taller more boxy body type right? It’s not like Dash and JJ look like clones of their parents and she’s the only one with an upward turned nose and a square jaw and oh god. She’s all of those things.

The last thing Violet remembers that night, is a quiet, “Tony I think I’m adopted.” Before hurling her insides all over the floor.

  


Violet took it upon herself to try and forget that night never happened. Tried, being the important word there. Tony had taken care of her the rest of the night, like the good friend he is, but apparently as an act of “Friendship Duty”, he decided pestering her into looking up her family was the most important thing in his life at the moment.

“Vi! You have to look!” He jogged to keep up with her long strides as they passed through the college campus on to their next classes. Students rushed around them in what used to be a winter wonderland, snow draping over the tall skyscrapers that scattered through their urban campus, but that was a week ago, and now the sludge became a peculiar shade of brown, it was cold and cloudy and almost everyone was praying for spring by now. Tony’s next words were in low whisper, “You’ve got powers! What if your family is also powered? They could be similar and give you pointers!” Now louder. “What if you have medical history you don’t know about? Or siblings? What if you finally get a girlfriend and because _you didn’t check to find out if you’re adopted_ , she ends up being your cousin!?”

She finally stopped, making Tony scramble to fall back with her in the middle of the sidewalk with other students passing by them. Violet was tired, she had barely slept, it was finals week and she was woefully unprepared, the slush getting into her socks and seeping into her bones, and all Vi wanted to do was curl up in bed with a good book and move on with her life. “ _Tony_ .” She said in that voice she knew made him shut up, which it did. “You are basing all of this purely on hypotheticals, but-” His face lit up. “And that is a very big _but_ \- I will ask my parents for my birth certificate so we can finally put this to rest once and for all, and then I never,” Pause to look into his gleaming eyes. “ _Ever,_ want to hear about this again.”

He proceeded with a fist in the air and a small, “Yesssss.” Before doing the hand motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key. “Thank youuuu!” He called before jogging ahead of her to pile into the swarm of students trying to get into the heated science building.

Violet couldn’t decide if she wanted to sigh or chuckle, and ended up on neither as she stared forward, focused on the present goal of Not Failing before attempting something new.

  


Winter break was a welcome vacation for Violet. She managed to just barely pass her classes, but a few of her professors had sent her an email asking if she was okay - after performing so well all semester, why the sudden change right at finals? Was there a personal issue affecting her work that could be of cause for a retake? She politely declined any offers for retakes, stating it would be unfair to other students.

She was home for Christmas, enjoying the warm California sun with her parents and JJ. Dash decided to stay at his boarding school in Texas with the rest of his super team, but promised to come by during new years.

Violet told herself she was having a good time. Her father making dumb jokes and being excited about football, mom in the kitchen cooking something delicious. JJ was as exuberant as ever, excited to hear about Vi's college life and show off the new power they'd managed to copy. She had a good family. A nice home. Clean and well fed and well loved.

Then why did everything feel so wrong?

JJ had gone to sleep and it was just her and her parents up, Christmas was a couple of days ago, and she had been putting off talking to them in fear of ruining the holiday for JJ. The three of them were up late watching some left-over Christmas specials, nursing old eggnog and hot cocoa. It was now or never.

“Hey ma?” Violet started during a commercial, her mom perking her head up from it's spot on her dad's shoulder. “Do you have my birth certificate anywhere? I need a passport for a school field trip.” Easy lie.

What was not easy was seeing her dad tense up. He was a terrible liar and had incredibly obvious tell, immediately pulling into his Mr. Incredible persona by tightening every muscle to seem bigger, jaw clenched. Her mom on the other hand, was unfazed. “Why would you need a passport for a school field trip?” She questioned innocently.

Fuck. “Uh… we're going to Vancouver. Some art museum up there.” Hell yes.

Her mom nodded like it was the simplest thing in the world. “Sure thing honey, I'm pretty sure Dicker has it in some files somewhere,” patting her father's chest and lying back down, he visibly relaxed in that way where he knew everything was taken care of. “Dad will call him up and get it mailed to you.”

“Why would Dicker have my birth certificate?” That's...odd, right? Rick had given them all their paperwork back when the witness protection program for them was shut down.

Back to her father tensing up like Bomb Voyage had just stalked in the room, even her mother - flexible as ever - seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. “I'm… sure we just left it with him, he probably has Dash's and JJ's too.”

Violet could feel every muscle in her body vibrating, feeling like a taught cog in a clock. She paused for a moment, looking down at her fingers as they started to dissipate in the air, feeling the energy arc between floating strands of her hair as she felt herself losing her mind for a hot second. “Mom… dad…” They both look back to her after averting their eyes to the TV again. “Am… I adopted?”

Their faces were all she needed.

They didn't look scared, or angry, or like they had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. No they just looked… sad. Not for themselves but _at her_. Like they pitied her.

“I am… aren't I?” Violet felt heat raising in her voice. How dare they? How dare they let her live this… this _lie?_ Let her believe she was something she wasn't? Just fool her every day of her goddamn life for _years_ . They looked at each other, and then at her, eyes still wrought with concern. Her mom- no _Helen_ \- opened her mouth like she was going to say something but Vi cut her off. “Were you ever going to tell me? Was I ever going to know?”

Another worrisome look back and forth. “Oh honey… we- we were going to tell you when you were 18-” _excuse me?_ “But… you were having such a tough time adjusting to college and- and JJ had just come out and we didn't want to make you feel excluded or overwhelmed.” Helen stood, using her powers to reach out and try and touch her shoulder, but Vi whacked her away with a small force field, causing the offending limb to fall limply to the floor before being retracted back. Tony was right, their powers weren't the same. How dare she… flex how different Vi was in front of her. Try to be comforting while just showing off that Vi wasn't one of them.

Bob spoke up, standing and putting a comforting hand on the small of his wife's back. “Sweetheart… we're still your family even if we're not by blood,” he paused, breathing deep. “When supers were legal back in the old days… it was illegal for us to have children. They were worried about the gene passing on and having an uprising. So we adopted and had you. And well … a lot of supers were putting their kids up for adoption so they wouldn't get in trouble, and we got so lucky to have you. We _wanted_ you Vi.” He tried to take a step forward, but Violet put up another barrier.

She held it there for a moment, just staring at the two of them, still holding the shield up and observing their warped faces. “I… could have family out there.” Bob attempted to interject, but Vi just made the next statement louder. “I could have family out there! Like me! I could have family that uses invisibility or fields or anything! You _let me_ feel like an outcast for _years_! You let me worry about how different I was! You let me feel wrong and ashamed for not being like you or Dash or JJ!” She put her hands on both sides of her head, feeling her heart pulsing in her ears and static buzzing around her. ”Everything I felt like was wrong about me, isn't. I'm just not in the right place.”

“Honey! You're _our daughter_!” Helen yelled loud enough over the increasing energy pressure of the room, as more and more fields popped up in various places, Violet's extremities fading away as panic looped in her mind.

“But I wasn't supposed to be!” Vi screamed. “You said it yourself, supers _had_ to give up illegal kids! What if they wanted me? What if everything in my life is _wrong_ ?” Again with that pitying look. “Stop with the fucking look!” Both looked startled by her profanity, but with fire burning in her lungs she could care less. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, so she didn't fade away completely, Violet stated calmly. “Do… you know anything about my birth parents? Where I came from? You _owe_ me that much.” The bite to her tongue came out harsher than she meant to, but if it made her point, she didn't care.

Helen looked confused, and rather hurt at the last statement, but Bob spoke up. “You might be French. When Dicker handed you to me, he called you Violette… everything else was anonymous, there's no record of anything.”

_Violette._

“I've been pronouncing my _goddamn name_ wrong!?” She blew up, feeling herself completely disappear and creating a forcefield slicing through the television, drowning the room in quiet other than her heaving breathing and the crackle of electricity from the smothering television.

“... Ma? Dad? Vi? What's wrong?” JJ's petite frame came shuffling into view from the hall, holding a pillow in one hand and running their eyes with the other, red hair mussed up in a flurry of spikes and still wearing footie pyjamas.

Oh. Violet felt herself calm, still invisible but the energy in the room subsided. JJ… was innocent in all this, they were just a kid. She hadn't meant to wake them.

“I'm… I’m gonna go.” She said, finally. Sprinting quietly so her parents couldn't follow her footsteps, grabbing the small backpack she brought with her and ignoring their please to _just stay for the night_ . _We can talk about this more in the morning, please. Vi don't go._ But they all fell on deaf ears as she padded out of the house, sneaking around their worried glances trying to catch a glimpse of her form while also comforting JJ. Violet slipped out the study window, falling onto wet grass because _of course_ it was raining tonight. Hopping onto her motorcycle, lighting up her family's frame in the window with her headlights before speeding off.

JJ could run fast enough to catch up with her. Honestly so could Helen and Bob, but Vi continued on, convinced that like always, they would let her shut herself away to “cool down” like they always did. Or send Dicker like a glorified maid whenever they needed someone else to clean up their mess.

Violet just drove. And drove. And drove. She didn't really know where she was going, and only pulled over for a moment to become visible again and throw a helmet over her sopping wet hair. She refused to go back to Helen and Bob. Just thinking about their faces - caught between worry and smugness that she came back - made her want to dry heave. There was no way she could get all the way to her dorm in Seattle on a motorcycle, with the mountains still covered with snow. Even if she did, Tony would be waiting for an update and would do the same _“I'm here for you if you need me”_ that he always did. Or worse, Helen and Bob would beat her there and be waiting to talk about it.

_I'm done talking about it. There's nothing left to know from them._

She almost spun out in a puddle when the next thought hit her mind, pulling to a stop in the middle of the empty road as her brain connected dots like floating stars. Pulling to the side of the road, as to not get hit, she snatched her phone from her pocket and hit speed dial.

It didn't even get to a full ring. “Hello?”

“Hey Dash. I need a favor.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just... doing this I guess.

Within the hour, she was on a plane. Not particularly fancy, shoved into the back of a cargo plane with her bike strapped down next to her, holding on for dear life onto the military green hammock pinned between two supporting beams as they hit another wave of turbulence. 

Dash had offered to run her to her destination, but she politely declined with a well placed lie of “I don't want to interrupt your superheroing business, just a little favor is all I need… also, don't tell mom and dad.” The words felt sour in her mouth, but even if her parents weren't actually her parents, Dash was still her younger brother and therefore kept sibling-sibling privacy. He made a call to some old buddies of him in the postal service (how he had buddies in the postal service, she doesn't know), and they got her on the next cargo to Paris. 

Not exactly the way she planned on getting there. Vi had hoped for a little bit of first class treatment, at least maybe a chair or a soda, but in the end this was a free ten hour flight to keep her off the radar of customs and her parents. 

_ Helen and Bob _ . She repeated to herself. That was going to take a little getting used to. Just because they raised her doesn't mean they're her parents. 

That being said, just because someone gave birth to her doesn't mean they're her parents either. It had taken a couple of hours into the flight for her to reach that conclusion, but Violet prided herself on being a rationalist (... most of the time that is), and fell on that she would decide familial labels  _ after  _ she met her birth family. 

Which… until now she hadn't really considered how crazy her plan was. What was she going to do when she got to Paris? It's not like she could go around asking every person of they had powers and possibly gave up a maybe-super powered baby for adoption twenty years ago. Did she just expect them to be waiting for her right at the airport? 

She wondered what they looked like. 

It was hard not the divulge into self indulgent thoughts like that. She wondered if they would have the same dark hair, or if just one of them did and she just got the dominant gene. Or if they had purple eyes like she did? Or what if she had grandparents? Or other siblings? What would their powers be like? If following Tony's theories, what kinds of powers would combine into density manipulation? What were their hero names? Or did they even do hero work, did they continue to stay underground even after the UN made supers legal again? What was her last name? 

“Penumbra?” A voice startled her out of her thoughts, looking over, she sees the doughy face of who she thinks is the co-pilot. After calling Dash, she changed into her super suit, it was more reasonable that he had called in a favor for another super friend, than some random girl. Edna had just made her a new suit and it was her first time trying it out. Now a black two piece set of loose pants with pockets, a well fitted bullet-proof long sleeve shirt, plus gloves. Accented with lines of iridescent blues and purples running along the curves of her body, and a full face mask that covered her eyes and mouth to avoid any gaseous poisons. Vi was warned that her suit is a little scary, dark and menacing with glowing purple goggles, but it's not like a lot of people are going to see her anyways, as she spent most of her time in costume invisible anyways. Also, unlike The Dash, she decided to not name herself either Incredigirl or Ultraviolet, because the first was just riding on the coattails of Mr. Incredible and was also rather sexist (“Why not Incrediwoman? Why does mom have to be Mrs. Incredible instead of Elastigirl?”), and the latter would give away her identity in a heartbeat. 

“Yes sir?” She responded, her voice sounding artificial through the voice box in her mask. 

He seemed perturbed by her appearance and the rough, gurgle sound coming out her her mask. Huh, maybe she should look into presenting less threatening. “We're about the land in just a second Ma'am. I… suggest holding on to something.”

She nodded, moving to hold onto one of the more stable support beams and bracing herself on the side of the plane. He returned the gesture, before moving back to the cockpit. 

Sure enough, they began a rough descent and in order to not be catapulted across the flying metal tube, Vi just slightly used her power to dematerialize, making her body lighter and float just slightly above the floor, putting her in mild zero-gravity while making her hands denser to hold on to the edges of metal. Making air dense for force fields was easy, but making her body denser took a little more effort, and by the time the plane shuttered onto solid ground and slowly taxied, Violet fell to her knees panting as her body re-regulated itself. 

After taking a bit of a breather, Vi grabbed her bag and started to unhook her bike, and as soon as the ramp to unload cargo was open, she activated her invisibility on both herself and the bike, speeding past bewildered workers startled by the rumble of an engine. From there it wasn't hard to escape the tarmac, just following a couple of golf carts out the back gates. Getting into the city was a little more difficult, as Violet had taken German as her mandatory language for high school, and it took a little bit of fiddling with her goggles to find a language translator. 

It was morning, with a layer of lightly dusted fresh snow from the night before slowly melting as the sun, and the people rose. Once Vi started seeing citizens, did she realize how goddamn tired she was. After not sleeping in the aftermath of the fight with Helen and Bob, and not resting on the plane at all, she was running in a good 28 hours no sleep. But, she also did not think this through as Violet realized she literally had zero cash on her. She couldn't use any debit or credit cards, as they would immediately ping her location to anyone looking for her, but she also needed food, and a place to stay while she researched. 

Just on the outskirts of downtown, she passed a bank. Skidding to a halt, burning a little rubber, Vi turned around and stared at the building. No outside security cameras, no outside guards, several easy getaway routes when you're invisible and on a motorbike. No one would even know she was there, just shadow an employee when they have to go into the safe for some change. Don't take a lot, just enough to get her a room for a couple of nights… 

No! That's insane! That's crime! She's a hero, a good guy! She can't rob a bank (a whole ass bank!) just for selfish reasons because she wasn't smart enough to bring cash. She'll figure out some other way. Violet turned her bike around and sped the other way, before slowing to a halt again just a mile away, breathing deep and looking behind her. What were her other options? She couldn't let anyone know she was here, it's not like she could get a job or busk for money, and the nights were getting colder and colder as January set in, even with her thermal protected suit, she would freeze eventually. Her stomach growled as if to make her point. Sighing, Violet turned around for the final time. She didn't have a choice, she told herself, it's your only option. But in the back of her mind, there was the thought of  _ well… just to see if I  _ can  _ do it.  _

  
  


Morning was the best time to do it. Tellers filling up their drawers early in the morning was perfect time to follow someone in and out. The bank hadn't opened yet, so Vi lurked around, placing her bike in a nearby alleyway for a quick getaway and counting security cameras that she could see looking in the windows. What looked like a nightguard paced inside, but he seemed to have gotten as much sleep as she had, yawning consistently and nodding off every so often. Easy. This was easy. She had no idea why super villains had so much trouble breaking into banks, but then again, most of them were stupid going for a heads on approach. 

The first teller of the day arrived, a young blonde woman with a neatly pressed blouse and a pencil skirt, knocking on the door to alert the guard before taking her keys out to let herself in. Violet hugged close behind her, not close enough to touch, but if she didn't have her mask on the woman would've definitely felt her breathing down her neck. The woman opened the door, just wide enough to get herself in and for Vi to slip by with her before the blonde turned, and locked it back behind her, muttering some French to the guard which Violet guessed was probably some early morning chit-chat. 

For the next hour, Violet meandered around as more employees showed up, one by one, and as each one showed up, they unlocked a new door deeper and deeper, closer to the vault as they grabbed everything they needed for the coming day, none the wiser or the invisible girl following them every step of the way. This was fine. There was nothing to worry about. Small bank, small crime, easy money, and - Violet promised herself - she could return the money she stole once she found her birth family, because then it didn't matter if someone tracked her there. She spends time tracking how long it takes for someone to go in the vault, get what they need, and get out, planning how long she has to get a drawer open, load up with some cash, and close it so no one is none the wiser. 

Finally, after following a thin man with big round spectacles and a very poor mustache, Vi spun around him as he unlocked the door to the large safe, entering the space and watching him input the code on one of the many locks inside. He pulled out a pre-counted metal drawer, locked it, before walking out and closing the foot-thick metal door, with Vi inside, behind him. Delighted, Violet recounted the numbers on the simple dial lock (seriously, even if she wasn't a hero, it's almost like they're asking to get robbed) and opened up the mini drawer. 

Well. Now she understood why people robbed banks. 

Even just inside the one drawer were stacks and stacks of cash. €500 euro bills piled neatly and organized with labeled bands alongside measured metal drawers waiting to be taken by tellers filling out for the day. She didn't need that much. Just a couple hundred dollars to get her through the week is all, nothing more… that being said, who says she can't treat herself? She's in Paris! Might as well splurge on a nice hotel right? And she's been wanting that new laptop for school for years now, just a little extra wouldn't hurt? Plus, she still hasn't bought Tony a Christmas present, might as well get him something a little on the pricier side? This is a company! A system of capitalism preying in the weak! Vi is simply… redistributing the wealth is all. And it's not like they don't have insurance for these kinds of things, banks get robbed all the time. She doesn't know the exchange rate, €500 might just be five dollars for all she knows. 

She takes her time, grabbing stack by stack and putting it into her invisible backpack, cash disappearing as it enters the fabric. Vi is just about satisfied with her haul, when the vault opens unexpectedly. Even more unexpectedly, black… fog? Starts to fill the chamber, layering the ground thick and Violet freezes as she sees two figures walk in. 

The first, wearing all white with a white mask and short jet black hair, feminine physique crouching like a lioness, slinking into the room with hands glowing like flashlights, looking right at the open vault. The second, striding in like he owned the place, wearing all black with ash white hair pulled into a ponytail, the black smoke rolling off his body in waves. 

They both look straight at her, and pull out a pistol each and aim straight for her. The one wearing white says something in French, voice soft and melodic despite the harsh words. Can… can they see her? Violet looks down and realizes the fog is coiling around her legs, even in her invisible form, she's too solid to have it move right through her. Where her legs are, is just a blank spot on the floor in the shape of a person. She takes a step away from the vault, but disturbs the darkness as she moves, and the duo follow her movement with the barrels of the guns, shouting another order in French. 

“Uh… je… ne parle…” That's French right? That means something? 

The pair look to each other and then back at her invisible form. “English?” 

“Yes.” 

“What are you doing here?” The one in black says, heavy accent dipping low as he pointed his gun at an awkward angle with one hand. He definitely was trying to seem cool like gangster shows on TV, but his partner held her gun with both hands, steady and trained exactly at Violet's forehead. 

Vi almost laughed. “Apparently robbing the bank at the same time as you fools.” She dropped her invisibility, both hands up with her bag in one. The one in white seemed a little startled, holding the gun with more confidence, finger dancing just above the trigger. “Look. I don't normally do this. So about this, I'll give you a pass and you give me a pass. I'll get out of your way and I'll continue on and forget I saw anything.” Vi can't believe she's making a deal with a pair of bank robbers. Super powered bank robbers? The one in white still shines like their blood is made of glow sticks, and the one is black is still producing the thick black smoke, that Violet realizes as it hits her ventilation unit, it's definitely thicker than air, heavy and disorienting and would be difficult to navigate without help. The pair look to each other, and then back at Violet, lowering their guns just a couple inches. 

Vi sees a flash of movement behind them, and without thinking, throws up a force field in the space of the open vault door, just barely catching a round of bullets from what looks like the guard present earlier this morning. The duo raise their weapons again, but after seeing no harm was done, and the gracious help she just provided them with (oh god she just helped a pair of supervillains rob a bank, what is she doing?) the one in white nods, moving past her and filling a matching duffel with the same stacks Violet was grabbing. As she does so, the one in black comes up next to Vi. 

“Keep the shield going, you help us, we help you.” Placing a hand on her shoulder, Violet notices the smoke release with more vigor, filling up the room to the ceiling. She slowly began losing sight of her shield in front of her as the darkness coated her vision, even with the air filtration in her mask, it was stuffy and hot and hard to breath, the only steadying force being the hand on her shoulder. 

It was strange, as the darkness lapped at her forcefield, even with her dwindling other senses, her perception felt heightened, like the contact between the forcefield and the fog caused her to feel every ripple of movement like a bat using echolocation. She wondered if it was part of his power, somehow transferred by the physical contact of his hand in her shoulder, but Vi didn't get much time to think about it as the one in white pushed them both forward towards the door. “Time to go.” she said huskily, voice dampened almost like they were all under water. 

Violet removed the shield, letting the darkness spill out into the rest of the hall, letting the Duo drag her through the haze. She felt bullets permeate the smoke, and just in time threw up several shields around them to protect not only herself, but the pair she had apparently befriended. The one in white gave her a tap on the shoulder, like she noticed the help and was giving an appreciative gesture. The three moved cohesively as a unit, like they had planned this all from the beginning as a team. Violet felt herself being guided down steps (were they already outside?) and she tugged the pair to the left. “Motorcycle.” She said simply, and started the lead the way to her bike parked in the alley. 

“Will we all fit?” The white one gripped the duffle with both hands, being Violet's only frame of reference as she glowed in the darkness. 

“Yes. Just hold tight.” Violet straddles the machinery, revving as the two pile on behind her, one gripping tightly around her thin waist and the other right behind. She activates her invisibility and is delightfully surprised to turn behind her and see the pair disappeared too… for whatever reason. Speeding off, using the feeling of the darkness around her to tell where the roads are and where cars enter and leave the patch of darkness they are consumed by. Barely hearing sirens scramble after them, with the distant sound of a crash behind them, she just picks up that the one in white, throws and sets off some be of flash grenade, and it takes Vi a second to realize that they're using their power to do so. Cool. 

They drive for a little bit more, before the one wearing black gestures for her to pull off to a side street and they exit the darkness, which begins to slowly fade away now that it's fuel source rides farther and farther away. 

Violet drives until her gas tank pings it's almost empty, and pulls into a dark alley. The pair leap off immediately, jumping into each other's arms and speaking rapid fire French. Vi simply waits, idly checking for any sort of damage on her bike. She got it for her 16th birthday and wanted to take care of it, but the beauty didn't get get a scratch. 

Although, when she turns around to face her… associates again, she is startled to realize that both had taken their mask off in a fit of excitement, the boy in black lifting the smaller frame of the girl off the ground as she gives a big toothed grin. Vi smiles a bit under her mask, softened by this moment of affection between the two, until they notice her and the girls face suddenly hardens into stare, and she forces him to drop her as she pulls out her gun again. Violet takes a step back, hands up and she stalks forward. The boy takes a moment to catch up, but soon pulls out his gun too. 

Violet is distracted. 

“Mask off.” the girl commands. 

_ Excuse me?  _ “Excuse me?” Violet blinks. 

“You saw us without our masks, it's only fair we see you.” the boy finishes. “That way neither can tell anyone.” 

Violet can't think. She's too distracted by their  _ eyes _ . Under their masks she couldn't see, but now that they're up close, she's lost. 

Both have bright, purple eyes. Just like her own. 

The boy's are a bit darker, while his partner's (maybe sister? who's older?) has more lavender, closer to Violet's own color. 

“Mask! Off!” she says again, loudly cocking the pistol. “We appreciate your help, but won't hesitate to shoot you.”

She takes her time, but Violet finally gets her muscles to agree with her, feeling the same tingling sensation she did the last time she talked to her parents. Taking the mouthpiece off first, letting it hang around her neck, before removing the goggles, keeping her eyes closed to give them a second to adapt to sunlight, before slowing opening them and locking eyes with the girl. It felt like looking in a mirror that was just slightly off, both having silly dark hair, square jaws, slender, boxy frames and upturned noses. Vi saw the recognition flash in her doppelgangers eyes, as she lowered the gun slack mouthed. 

“I think we have a lot to talk about.” she states simply, lowering her hands before instantly getting hit in the chest with a bullet. 

Violet gasps for breath, dropping to her knees and clutching the place where the bullet hit her in the sternum, not even hearing the chorus of “Sorry! Sorry! I panicked!” 

The bullet laid crumpled at her feet, not even tearing at the fabric of her shirt. It's bulletproof fabric but  _ Damn that hurts.  _ Edna did  _ not  _ warn her how much being shot hurts. It's definitely nothing like the movies. She just slightly recognizes someone kneeling in front of her, hand on her shoulder and she takes sharp breaths to try and recalibrate her lungs. 

“ _ Fuck _ that hurt.” Violet manages to wheeze out before crumpling further onto the dirty, piss smelling ground. Causing that dry heave she was thinking about a while ago and spitting up some bile on the concrete. 

“My apologies,” the boy pulls up behind the girl in white holding onto her shoulder. “I was so startled, we've never seen anyone else with eyes like ours...you know, that wasn't family.”

Vi chokes out a barking laugh. “Wouldn't you know, we might actually be.” Tears glistened in her eyes, mostly from pain. Yeah, pain, she tells herself. 

“Excuse me?” the girl says. Violet looks up and investigates her face. They're almost identical save for a few micro changes to their brow bone and cheeks, and she's probably a couple years younger. The boy is harder to pin down, square jaw but still thinner than both of them, and he's got the beginning of a scruffy beard so he could either be older and baby-faced or younger. 

Violet is crying, all that shoving down feelings for _ weeks _ after Tony first implied she might be adopted come crashing down. The girl runs patient circles in her back, just like Helen used to do after a nightmare. It takes a minute for her to calm down, but Vi gets so impatient she starts talking in heavy breaths. “I was adopted, twenty years ago, from somewhere in France. That's all I know, and well…” she coughs out another laugh at the situation. ”of course I meet my potential family while robbing a goddamn bank. Just my fucking luck.”

Again, as if on cue, the pair look to each other and then her again. “What is your name?” This time saying in unison. 

“Violet.” She finally gains her bearings and makes eye contact with them. “Or I guess I was Violette when I left.” Two mouths drop slack jawed, and Violet makes an obvious point to check if they're holding a gun to ensure she's not about to be shot again. Which  _ damn  _ that hurts and will definitely leave a bruise in the morning. “What?” 

“You… should talk to Mama and Papa.” The girl says before standing up and reaching out a hand. “I'm Blanche, that's Jean.” The boy waves. “You might be right about us being family.”

**Author's Note:**

> please for the love of god give me recommendations. I need this fic to exist but I don't know how to write plots.


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